1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to means and method for dynamically allocating bandwidth.
2. Description of the Related Art
The proliferation of broadband Value-Added Services such as video on demand, video conferencing, voice over IP, video phone, gaming, remote backup/restore, remote software updating/purchasing and other services, and their expected growth, pose an attractive business opportunity for service providers. However, service providers are facing real difficulty to capitalize on these services in the residential and small business markets, typically comprised of non-guaranteed (best effort) bandwidth customers that are charged fixed-rate pricing schemes.
Today's system accept decision, based on the current resource allocation map, which does not ensure optimal allocation and as well, does not support such a features as service planning (rescheduling) and resource reservation (scheduled services). In order to provide mentioned features, resource managed must have information about service duration. Service duration could be determined only for services like Video or music on Demand, where duration is specified by the content (movies, length).
Interactive services, like Voice, Conferencing, etc. aren't supply duration information and as the matter of fact can't be handled effectively in the resource allocation. Interactive session termination is determined de facto and not estimated. I.e. System can not approve (reserve, schedule) next session before termination of the currently running.
The lack of handling of network resources combined with the presence of different application requirements creates ‘traffic jams’, service degradations and failures, as the services compete over shared, limited resources.
A cost-effective policy managing device embedded in a network communication adapted to dynamically regulate bandwidth in the segment between a user and a service provider for temporary providing of content is a long felt need.
It is a first object of the present invention to disclose a policy managing device embedded in a network communication, adapted to dynamically regulate bandwidth in the segment between a user and a service provider for temporary providing of content, comprising a policy server (PS), adapted to provide management for users, service providers and network policies; resources admission controller (RAC), adapted to provide NMS/OSS integrated network monitor, predictive admission controller; flow controller (FC), adapted to implement various operational flows, aimed to provide support for different management models, network topologies and environments; report generator, adapted to provide reports helping network planning and revenue planning and analysis such as reports per subscriber, service and network, e.g. quota utilization, network loading, percentage of denies, subscribers activities, etc; management and control module, adapted to provide administrator portals enabling operators to run BwPRM, ASP integration kit and element manager functionalities.
It is another object of the present invention wherein adapted to manage users and ASPs policies regarding QoS on demand access, manage network topology, manage run-time allocation and/or release of the network resources due to service requirements, learning and analyzing user and network consumption, monitoring network utilization and reporting users on the current situation and predicting future scenarios.
It is another object of the present invention wherein said policy server considers network parameters selected from bit-rate, delay, jitter and by concurrent streams and bandwidth.
It is another object of the present invention wherein adapted to decide whether to allocate bandwidth to the end-user immediately, deny said allocation, allocate in a delayed time, or allocate less bandwidth than requested by the user.
It is another object of the present invention wherein further comprising a learning & prediction engine adapted to collect information about user activities selected from session duration, service type, peak time and network behavior selected from availability and resource utilization and providing loading forecasts, resource reservation, and interactive QoS degradation.
It is another object of the present invention wherein further comprising at least one pluggable adapter for communication with network enforcement elements.
It is another object of the present invention wherein adapted to increase bandwidth allocation for one or more users in a SOHO network, or any group of users belong having a general bandwidth allocation.
It is another object of the present invention wherein adapted to ensure virtually private service space for end-users under one authority.
It is another object of the present invention wherein adapted to consider transport aggregation on at least one segment so as to detect bottlenecks restrictions before arriving at a conclusion about resource end-to-end availability.
It is also in the core of the present invention to disclose a method for managing bandwidth allocation, comprising receiving a request from the user or the service provider to increase said bandwidth, deciding whether or not to allow bandwidth increasing, increasing said bandwidth for a predetermined period of time and decreasing said bandwidth to the former bandwidth.
It is another object of the present invention wherein further comprising at least a portion of the following steps, selected from checking users policy, checking network resources availability, reserving quota on the delivery elements, creating decision, commanding traffic enforcers & moving session state, generating accounting information record.
It is another object of the present invention wherein said decision is selected from a group consists of denying the request, allocating the bandwidth, rescheduling the allocation of said bandwidth and allocating a portion of the requested bandwidth.
It is another object of the present invention wherein further comprising the steps of calculating the time of which the end-user waits before bandwidth allocating, the maximal bandwidth possibly allocated to one or more users.
It is another object of the present invention wherein further comprising the step of rescheduling bandwidth allocation in case said bandwidth can not be provided immediately.
It is another object of the present invention wherein further comprising the step of analyzing network scenarios and former bandwidth allocations and predicting network behavior and thus allocating bandwidth efficiently.
It is another object of the present invention wherein further comprising the step of predicting resources availability based on network behavior and user profiles.
It is another object of the present invention wherein further comprising the step of ensuring virtually private service space for end-users under one authority.
It is another object of the present invention wherein further comprising the step of considering transport aggregation on at least one segment so as to detect bottlenecks restrictions before arriving at a conclusion about resource end-to-end availability.